


Rip & Tear

by InkuisitivSkins



Category: Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood & Manga
Genre: Backstory, Body Horror, Canon-Typical Violence, Chimeras, F/F, Original Character-centric, POV Original Character, Pre-Canon
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-01-23
Updated: 2018-01-23
Packaged: 2019-03-08 13:35:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,219
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13459335
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/InkuisitivSkins/pseuds/InkuisitivSkins
Summary: Silq is a captain in the Amestrian Army, stationed on the Aerugan front where the two countries war over their shared border. After she sustains a grave injury, she is taken to a government facility in which human chimeras are created for military use. Little do the scientists know, she had been itching for a chance to get back at the military that wronged her, and her newfound abilities are just what she needed to rebel. A spinoff fromThe Northern Theatre.





	Rip & Tear

**Author's Note:**

> Hi guys <3 I'll be working on this alongside my Assassin's Creed AU, I just wanted to start this one first since I have more of its plot and I thought it would be easier to start. Also, I may change the rating to mature, though I'm not quite sure yet... We'll see. 
> 
> If you have no idea who any of these characters are, Silq is an OC I used in my longfic [The Northern Theatre](http://archiveofourown.org/works/9662246/chapters/21827606); people just really seemed to like her so I thought I'd do a backstory fic for her. 
> 
> I hope you enjoy, and please don't forget to leave a kudos and a comment if you did <3

She didn’t care for the heat. Therefore, she didn’t care much for the desert area of Aerugo, in which her division was stationed to push back those who had been encroaching on Amestris’s southern border. 

She knew it had been a bad idea to engage in this area. Trenches couldn’t be dug in sand, and the flat land made them easy targets-- a notion that manifested itself in the worst way possible.

The clear blue sky that one contrasted the hot orange sand so easily darkened with the presence of gunpowder and smoke. As quick and sharp as the sound of a gunshot, the combat began, cannonfire and bullet rounds exchanged by both sides, the carnage uninhibited by the area’s level and barren geography. 

Silq scowled, her mosin-nagant kicking back into her shoulder as she took a shot. “Hey, Colonel!” She called to the division’s resident officer, not caring to conceal the impatience and annoyance in her voice. “Why don’t we be smart and fall back? We’re going to get rinsed if we stay here any longer!”

He called back to her, obviously not heeding her concern, as he didn’t even spare her a glance as he kept his gaze locked on the enemy, “There’s nowhere to fall back to, Captain Sonora, besides, they’re just as exposed as we are.”

The woman gave a frustrated _ tsk _ , “There’s some dunes back behind us a ways, if we can get back there and lead them behind us, we can gain the higher ground!” 

The officer finally turned back to look at her, though on his face was a grimace, “That plan would get all of us killed! There’s a reason I’m leading this division, and you’re not, so I advise you listen to  _ my _ orders!”

Cursing under her breath, Silq lined up a shot once again, feeling the familiar kick of her rifle in her shoulder once again as she watched the violence unfold around her. The enemy cannons were off their marks, but the gunners were more trained and more precise than their peers who manned the cannons-- so, unable to change the outcome of this scuffle, the captain watched as Amestrian men around her fell, one by one. 

It wasn’t long before the Aerugan cannons stopped missing their targets, and Silq was one of the first to be affected by it. She called for a comrade to watch out, shortly before a force heavily hit her, numbing her whole body as her ears rang. As her vision darkened, all she saw was the world before her spin onto its side, and the last thing she felt was the pull of gravity on her body as she fell to earth. 

  
  


Silq Sonora never wanted to join the military. Her family, made up only of her and her parents, was poor; the military, especially with all of the political unrest currently underway, seemed like the most logical choice. After getting enlisted, she was immediately sent to the Aerugan front. 

Her family lived in a small farming town just east of South City, so it made sense that she was sent to the conflict nearest to her, rather than to the Cretian or Drachman borders. 

Shortly after being stationed in Aerugo, she began to warm up to the idea of the amy, yet that momentary peace did not last for long in the slightest. 

Aerugo had pushed back the front into Amestris, and for a short while, they had a foothold just south of the providence’s main city. The town in which Silq’s family lived was ransacked; her parents killed. 

All trust and hope she held for the military was snuffed out like the fire of a fragile candle when she was denied leave to go visit her parents one final time, putting them to rest. She was kept within the defending ranks, the higher-ups’ reasoning being that they needed all the manpower possible in order to push the front back into Aerugo, to once again gain the upper hand. When challenged, they told her she would be arrested if she resisted the terms of her enlistment. 

So, she had no choice but to reluctantly obey. 

If asked, however, she would eventually come to say that it wasn’t  _ all _ so bad. She had made a few acquaintances; she preferred not to make actual  _ friends _ , since she had already lost two who she had really liked-- if she had allowed them to eventually become friends, she knew that their deaths would have hurt that much more than they already did. 

Despite denying the bond she had with them, these acquaintances were the only thing keeping her going. She knew she was not living; merely existing. 

One particular acquaintance-- one who was undoubtedly a friend, though Silq would not admit it, was an army medic she had taken a quick liking to. 

The first time she saw her, Silq had narrowly missed a bullet to her arm, it having scraped against her skin-- so, she went to the medic to get the wound dressed, before being sent back out to guard their area. 

She was seated by a petite, light-haired woman, who, once she removed her medical face mask to speak with the soldier, was revealed to have a gentle, pretty face. 

Silq smiled at her as she examined her arm, her voice playful, “Hey, you come here often?”

The medic’s blue eyes met Silq’s orange, her own tone dead-serious, and said without missing a beat, “I haven’t, yet.”

Unable to suppress her laugh, Silq didn’t catch the medic’s amused smile as she straightened, retrieving a roll of bandages. 

“Your quick response tells me I’m not the first person who’s asked,” the captain chuckled, her laugh dying down as she watched the medic disinfect her wound. 

The medic’s small smile did not die, however, “Unfortunately.”

“What’s your name?”

“Bonnier.”

“What’s your first name?”

The medic shot the other woman a brief look before she continued wrapping Silq’s arm, “Kiri.”

“Silq,” she flashed her a smile. 

Kiri blinked, “Like the--”

“Yes, like the fabric. Spelled different, though.”

The medic’s slight smile returned, “Your quick response tells me I’m not the first person who’s asked.”

Silq didn’t fight the smile she returned to her, and Kiri, done with her work, pat her shoulder, “There, you’re all fixed.”

“I may have to get injured again, just so I can come see you.”

Kiri gave an entertained snort, “Well, aren’t you charming?”

Silq chuckled, standing up before fixing her uniform shirt, “I hope to see you again.”

She hadn’t expected Kiri’s wink, “For your sake, let’s hope you don’t.”

Smirking, Silq left the infirmary to return to the front, all the while holding in and burying deep her reluctance. If she could survive this border war, perhaps she could go home with enough money to move farther north and quit the military for good. Perhaps she could finally live a life she wanted to live. 

  
  


The first thing she noticed was the stiffness in her jaw. Her senses were clouded, the voices she heard distant. She had no spatial awareness; she felt as if she was floating. Quickly realizing something was amiss, and she was _ just  _ on the battlefield in the middle of a fight, she tried to open her mouth and speak, yet her jaw was locked; the attempted movement sending a shock of hot pain up through her temple on one side of her face. 

Beginning to panic, she struggled, trying to move her hands beneath her to lift herself up into a sitting position, yet a hand placed firmly in the middle of her chest stopped her, all while helping bring her senses back to reality. 

Her vision focused, and in her sight, she saw the familiar face of the pretty army medic. She was speaking hurriedly, communicating with someone.  _ What was her name, again? _ She couldn’t bring herself to remember. 

Still unaware of where her body was, she supposed she was being lifted once she felt a steady and gentle rush of air hit the side of her face that wasn’t totally numb. The air ceased as she was put back down-- flat, on her back, she now noticed. The medic stood above her, another figure off to her side. 

“Silq, can you hear me?”

Silq only managed to blink slowly, emitting a low groan that she could only hope the medic recognized as an acknowledgement. 

She was successful, she realized once the medic continued speaking, “You’re at our medical facility, you got caught in the debris from a cannon shell-- we’re not sure how badly hurt you are, but your arm and your jaw are broken for sure.”

_ That explains it.  _

“But if you could--” She flinched suddenly as the world tremored. Pausing to look around and say something to another medic, she quickly continued, “If you could just hold on a little longer, we’re having to transport you and everyone else back farther north, they’ve pushed the front up here--”

The world shook again, the low boom of cannonfire causing Silq’s ears to ring. Even with her muddy consciousness, she noticed something small tear a hole through the roof of the makeshift medical tent she was in, before it fell to earth somewhere near her. 

Now, she began to clearly hear the frantic yelling of orders to and from both soldier and medical staff alike. The familiar face above her resumed in trying to lift Silq again; she now knew she was on a stretcher, as an unseen figure behind her lifted the side of the stretcher that her head was on; the other medic had lifting the side with her feet. 

She felt the air on her face as the stretcher was quickly carried somewhere-- yet, the speed was not great enough, and the sounds of war remained as loud and present as ever. 

She hadn’t realized her eyes had closed until the stretcher exited the tent and bright sunlight stung her, even being concealed behind her eyelids. She felt her eyebrows furrow, the movement, no matter how slight, paining her on the side she supposed her jaw was broken. 

With immediate regret, she ground her teeth together, in a moment of stupidity where the dots weren’t connected. As she did so, it felt as if a knife had been driven through her chin, and even as she gasped and stopped, the pain remained.

Her feet tilted from side to side as the medic stumbled due to a nearby cannon shell. The figure behind her head said something, but their voice was instantaneously silenced by the largest clap of thunder Silq had ever heard. 

She slipped back out of consciousness just before her stretcher hit the rocky, sandy ground below her. 

  
  


The world was eerily silent, a complete contrast to what it had been before. The first thing she felt was a warmth on her skin-- on one side, it was a radiating sensation, with no physical touch; on the other, the coarse grit of sand accompanied the heat. 

Her lungs drew in little air, her body entirely numb. When she opened her eyes, she strained to make sense of the shapes around her. Mostly, what she saw was the dark color of smoke-- farther away, blotches of dark. Something was close to her, however-- it was down near her feet. Curious, she tried to focus, though the inability to move her head down caused small, bright white dots to swim in her already-hazy vision. 

Finally, she saw a body. Upon further strain and focus, the color red became evident, as well as the severe lack of limbs on one side of it. 

A shadow grew over all she could see, shortly surrounded by others. Voices, unintelligible.

Then, darkness, once again. 

  
  


“Good morning, Miss Sonora,” A voice, too close to her for her liking, broke her mental silence. She sat up, swinging, not noticing how much more vitality her body had compared to her last period of consciousness.

Her fists meeting only air, Silq finally opened her eyes, blinking, trying to gain her bearings as a headache pounded in her temples.

She was in an all-white room; void of windows. A sink and a bucket sat in one corner, and, she noticed, since she was sitting upon it-- a bed in the opposite corner. It didn’t take her much time to investigate, since there was not much to be observed-- everything in the room that was not part of the architecture was not white, so it stood out. 

She looked down, the sudden movement hurting the back of her neck. She was in a hospital gown, her arm was bound against her chest, and she became aware of a similar wrapping around her head, holding her jaw in place. 

“Feeling better now?”

She looked back up once again, her gaze met with that of a man in a white, rather scientific-looking lab coat. He wore a kind smile, his voice amused. 

Though, Silq’s mood was nowhere similar to his. She frowned, her voice muffled by what tasted and felt like cotton in her mouth, “Who are you? Where the hell am I?”

“A medical facility, safe inside the borders of Amestris, I assure you,” his smile endured. “You were badly hurt out on the southern front, and the injuries are a bit too much for normal field medics to handle. But don’t fret, we’re a government organization, so we’ll get you right as rain in no time-- before long, you’ll be out fighting the Aerugans once again.”

“What if I don’t want to do that?” Silq scowled, ignoring the pain in her jaw in favor of what she hoped would be intimidation.

This time, the man chuckled, “Oh, I do believe you’ll be  _ itching _ to get back out in the field once we’re all done.”

A sudden thought, like a spark of electricity, intruded in on Silq’s thoughts; “Where’s Kiri?”

He blinked, tilting his head slightly, “Kiri?”

“The field medic who helped me, where is she?”

“Oh, you mean Miss Bonnier,” his smile returned. “She’s here with us as well, don’t you worry. Her injuries were, well… More extensive than yours, but I assure you, you’ll be seeing her shortly.”

Silq simply blinked, confused, yet uneasily-content with his answers. 

“Now, Miss Sonora, would you come with me? We have a few more tests we need to run and medications to give you. You’re still experiencing some pain, correct?”

She nodded gently, not wishing to agitate said pain further. 

“I’ll give you some lidocaine, we still need to finish setting your jaw back into place, and it’s going to hurt,” he watched as Silq carefully set her feet onto the floor, standing wobbly. “We tried to do it earlier, but in your unconscious state, you were rather combative. You almost bit a few of our staff.”

Gathering herself, Silq did not have it in her to apologize, her wariness still ever-present, despite how much she was trying to bury it deep within her. Something seemed…  _ Off _ . 

Still, she followed him out of the room she was in, into the hallway, which was equally as monochromatic and barren as the room she had been in. They passed several doors, each labeled with different medical terms--  _ surgery _ , _ ward _ , _ CT _ … Yet, others seemed less medical, and more scientific, like  _ mitosis lab,  _ and _ animal quarantine _ .

“You keep animals here?” Silq questioned, eyebrows furrowed. “Seems kind of unsanitary.”

“We use lab animals to test out every new treatment we develop,” the man answered simply. “They’re all laboratory-quality specimens; typical albino rats, and so forth.”

Eventually, he stopped at a door only labelled by a number, before entering and inviting Silq inside, “Please, have a seat.”

The room seemed to be the most normal thing in the whole place so far, she thought to herself, so she sat herself down in the reclining chair. 

The man exited for a brief moment before returning, a rolling hanger in tow, equipped with different medical items. Taking his time, he removed each of them, explaining what they all did before somehow putting it somewhere on her body. 

One was to test blood pressure, one her temperature, and so forth. He asked her to keep them on as he drew up liquid into a syringe that was clearly labelled as lidocaine. 

“I’m just going to give you a bit of this so you don’t feel your jaw as I fix it, alright?”

Silq quietly nodded, watching nervously. She always hated needles, but she knew she would rather have this momentary pain in order to prevent the even worse pain she would soon feel. He tilted her face to the side, and with a wince, she felt the needle pierce skin, always overly-aware of exactly how deep it was in her flesh, focusing on the feeling of the liquid spread, until he removed it.

Discarding the needle, the man began to draw up another syringe; this time, from a vial only labeled with an orange sticker. 

“What’s that one?” Silq asked, her jaw already beginning to numb.

“This one will be a further painkiller,” he spoke, staring intently at the syringe as he drew up whatever the exact amount it was that he needed. “I’ll be putting it into your arm; it’s a long-working one so that after the lidocaine wears off, the pain will still be as minimal as possible, since your jaw will still be sore even after it’s fixed.”

“What’s it called?”

The doctor took a moment to reply, only speaking when he set the empty vial down on the table. 

“Heloderma.”

Satisfied with his scientific-sounding answer, Silq nodded once again, not objecting with anything but another wince and a whimper as he injected the liquid into the inside of her elbow. She turned away, squeezing her eyes shut, thankful that she was able to grind her teeth once again due to the numbness that had now overcome one side of her face. 

Once she felt the needle leave her arm, she finally released the breath she had not known she was holding. The doctor took a short moment to check all of the equipment attached to her, before jotting down a few notes on a paper pad he had set on the table. “How’s the jaw feeling?”

“ _ Numm _ .” Silq replied, unable to feel half her tongue. 

“Good,” he continued, stepping up to her. “Now, turn your head to the side, and I’ll get started.”

  
  


Her jaw and her arm healed  _ very _ quickly, to her relief. Yet, several days after arriving at the facility, the doctor informed her that her jaw had become infected due to the wounds she had sustained, so treatment continued-- every day, she was taken to the same room, and she was injected with the same liquid she had been on that first day. She didn’t feel any different throughout her stay, save for her injuries healing. She had not noticed the infection nor any side effects from what was being given to her, so she assumed that the infection was not something she would have noticed, and that the substance was doing its job of healing the invisible illness.

On the fourteenth day of her stay, the doctor came to visit her once again.

“Hey, doc,” she spoke up before he had a chance to greet her. “You told me the first day I was here, I’d get to see Kiri. When’s that gonna be? And when am I getting let out of here?”

“Tests say that the infection in your jaw has improved, yet it’s not fully gone, so just a bit longer,” he replied, wearing the same smile as he did that first day. “And you can see Miss Bonnier today, actually. She’s finally well enough to leave her room.”

Perking up slightly, Silq was grateful--  _ finally. _ Seeing the medic would probably bring her spirits up, she hoped.

“Come with me, I’ll take you to her,” he chimed, opening the door for her. Quickly standing, excited to see the other woman, Silq hurried out the door with him. 

Yet, he led her to the same room she had been going to for the past two weeks. 

“What the hell,” she frowned. 

“You need one more treatment,” the doctor urged her to sit. “I’ll give you the strongest dose of antibiotics I possibly can this time, so we can kick that infection for good. If you see her, you wouldn’t want her to get infected too, would you? Especially in the state she’s in.”

Silq’s frown did not waver, and neither did her nerves as he injected her again, “What exactly happened to her?”

He did not make eye contact, his gaze focused on the emptying syringe, “The same cannon that nearly killed you took off both her arm and leg on the right side of her body.”

As soon as the words left his mouth, Silq sat in dumbfounded silence. All at once, memories came racing back to her, with more clarity-- the body she had seen was the medic’s. 

“How is she still alive?” Silq asked, her speech beginning to slur near the end of her sentence, as her mind quickly began to fog. Without meaning to, she tipped forward, not aware of the doctor catching her before she hit the floor, his smile gone.

“You’ll see soon enough.”

  
  


She woke with a groan, her inner arm sore, and her head throbbing. Sitting up with some effort, Silq rubbed her temple, “ _ Fuck _ , can I please stop getting knocked out by shit?”

A woman’s voice frantically calling her name caused Silq’s eyes to snap open, immediately met with the terrified eyes of the army medic, the two separated by a thick glass. 

Silq called back to her, yet she only got the first syllable of the other woman’s name out before she saw that what the doctor had said was true-- Kiri was completely putting her weight on one side of her body, balancing herself on the only leg and arm that she had, the other half of her wrapped up in bandages and concealed by the same hospital gown that she wore. 

“I told you that you would see Miss Bonnier soon, Miss Sonora,” the doctor’s voice spoke through an intercom to them, causing Silq’s attention to snap up once again. Quickly, she took in her surroundings-- both her and the army medic seemed to be in glass cubes, with no visible entrance or exit. 

“Where the fuck are we?!” Silq screamed, suddenly fueled with anger. The same unease she had felt when she first came to in this medical facility had returned, yet, this time, instead of a wariness and suspicion, it was like a doomed epiphany. 

“You are in the Recombinant Room,” the doctor smiled. “Are you young ladies familiar with the term  _ chimera _ ?”

Kiri’s voice was the reply, quiet, and so obviously afraid, “I… It’s a single living organism that was derived from different individual zygotes.”

“And the mythological chimera?”

Silq turned to look at Kiri, who she noticed swallow nervously, “It’s a monster comprised up of different animals.”

“Interesting,” the doctor replied. “And are you aware that both of those definitions are true, and that they are not just myths any longer?”

Kiri returned Silq’s gaze, her blue eyes wide, unable to speak out of fear. 

“There have been a few living chimeras created through the use of alchemy,” he continued. “In that form of alchemy, you take two separate organisms. Initially, tests were run where each organism was of the same species, and once those were successful, organisms different from one another were combined. Then, we stepped it up to the combination of _ three _ different organisms, and so on. But few have successfully created human-animal chimeras.”

The injection site in Silq’s inner elbow burned, so she fruitlessly clutched at it with her opposite hand, hoping to ease the pain even slightly. 

“Outside of our humble laboratory, only one man has succeeded-- but the chimera was confined to its spliced form, never able to regain its fully-human nor fully-animal form ever again. That is why, instead of solely using alchemy, we took a more medical approach.”

A red light below Silq began to glow, catching her attention. Upon looking down, her heart skipped a beat when she saw what she knew was a transmutation circle. 

“Utilizing our remotely-activated transmutation circles, and our cutting-edge scientific knowledge, we can use the leptin in your bodies to speed up a form of metamorphosis. Leptin is most commonly known to inhibit appetite, but it also plays a vital role in fetal development, and, from our studies, the change a tadpole undertakes as it becomes a frog. When given leptin, our tadpoles essentially  _ evolved _ prematurely. So, here we are.”

WIth a wave of his hand, a new figure entered the room, wheeling in and parking a large tank in front of Silq’s cube. Inside, she noticed a transmutation circle that looked similar to hers, and on top, calmly sat a large, black and orange lizard.

Its eyes met hers, before it calmly slipped its thick forked tongue out from its maw, tasting the air. 

“You’re up first, Miss Sonora.”

As the red light increased, it illuminated the tank further, allowing Silq to realize with horror that a label on it read “ _ Heloderma suspectum _ ”.


End file.
